21 March, 2013

I haven't quit blogging. Sure, I managed to leave The Eagle's Aerial Perspective lonely and abandoned for a week, but I'm not gone yet. I had surgery last Friday (I'm walking again and there's little pain) and haven't been doing much since then--well, other than watching videos and knitting a sweater--to let the incision heal, including using the computer.

This post is just to let you all know I don't think I'll be doing much blogging until the A to Z Blogging Challenge begins on April 1st. I might say something here if the urge strikes me, but other than that, I'll probably lie low and comment on a few blogs here and there. And read email--good grief, who knew how many emails could build up from a few days in the hospital. LOL.

So, what's up with you? Any good news? Bad news? Anything exciting happen?If you're participating in the A-Z Challenge, do you have a theme and/or have you pre-written your posts? Or are you planning to wing it?

The National Wormhole Day Blog Hop is hosted by Stephen Tremp, Laura Eno, and L.G. Smith. Like the recent Back to the Future blogfest, it's based on time travel--though this time it's a person traveling through time, not a shoe box! It sounded like fun, so I signed up.

About the blogfest (from Stephen's blog):

What would you do or where would you go if you could traverse a wormhole through space or time just once? One safe round trip passage. Would you go back in time and talk some sense into a younger you? Go five years into the future and bring back the Wall Street Journal? See just how the heck the Great Pyramids of Giza were really built? View what the other side of the universe looks like? Kill Hitler?

I love speculating about the future; I am a huge fan of stories that cast human society forward hundreds or thousands of years. Therefore, I'd choose traveling through time to year 3001, just to see what it looks like--because while 2001 didn't turn out to be the milestone predicted I'm sure 3001 will be entirely different from today, either for better or for worse. Hopefully the better.

And (since this is for fun and I don't want to think about all the possible breakdowns of spacetime if time travel occurred) I'm pretty sure I'd try sticking around in the future for a while before cashing in on the second part of the "safe round trip". You know, move into a space colony, experience all the cool technology, eat amazing food, be amused by the historians who think Windows was the pinnacle of engineering a millennium before. The usual things one would do a thousand years after they were born.

What would you do if you ended up in the future? Where would you go if you could travel through time?

12 March, 2013

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly, bookish meme hosted by MizB at Should Be Reading. Though I sometimes miss the "weekly" part of the idea--I didn't post last week for TT. Sorry, everyone!

Rules for participating:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week, my teaser is from A Matter of Degrees by Gino Segrè. It's a science book about temperature and its affect on a range of different scientific fields. I've only read the introduction so far, but it seems quite fascinating.

(This is not the cover of the library book I'm reading. But I could find no good quality images of the one that's red with black and white text.)

Early caves have chemical evidence of wood fires from at least 200,000 years ago, the period of the transition from Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. These caves are marked by the accumulation of ashes containing minerals characteristically absorbed by trees.

-p. 43

What are you reading right now? If you're between books, what are you planning to read next?

11 March, 2013

Hello, blogosphere! This is somewhat of a different post from what I normally blog about. While I know there's a good chance you, dear reader, are an adult and not a teen, I was contacted by the Teen Author Boot Camp and asked if I'd be willing to do some promotion for them.

Since I'm a young adult myself and thought TABC sounded like a really cool event, I thought I'd jump onboard and spread the word. The TABC was also kind enough to offer to giveaway a pass to their live online broadcast (or $5 off the normally-$10 All-Pass, which gives you access to more than just the live broadcast) whose keynote speaker is Shannon Hale.

The Rafflecopter giveaway is below, after this guest post by writer Margie Jordan, of Writers Cubed.

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There is a famous line from a movie that says, “I was always a band geek. I just never joined the band.” I could relate. When I was in high school I was a president of the dance team, a singer in the choir, a hang-out-with-my-boyfriend-until-mom-and-dad-forced-me-home kind of person. But in my heart, I was a writer. This is why I tell people all the time, “I was always a writer. I just always hated English.”

Because I was a closet writer, I didn’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of, no one to tell me when I stank, no one to teach me how to craft a really great story. My teachers were the millions of books I read (not in a closet—but hidden away when my friends were around). And I WISHED I could have had someone to talk to about my hidden obsession.

If this sounds like you…. Then I’m happy to say there is a solution.

The Teen Author Boot Camp, founded by the Utah-based group Writers Cubed and sponsored by Utah Valley University is one of only a few writing conferences nationwide geared solely for teenagers who have a love for the written word. For the first time ever, Writers Cubed is offering the conference to anyone who wants to attend through Live Stream.

If you just can’t get enough of TABC, there is also an All Pass Subscription to the rest of the conference (including more than fifteen awesome presentations, including mine--haha). That only costs $9.99 and, as if it wasn’t a sweet enough deal already, you can watch the whole conference whenever you want for an entire year.

To register to watch Shannon Hale’s Keynote for free, visit www.teenauthorbootcamp.com and click on Livestream. It only takes a minute. While you’re there, check out the other presenters who will be teaching at the conference under the tab “Drill Sergeants.”

Stay tuned for details on how to win a subscription to the TABC Live Broadcast for FREE on this blog

Margie Jordan is a co-founder of Writers Cubed, a group of Utah writing activists who createdthe Teen Author Boot Camp in 2010. In her spare time, like when she isn’t writing, she is a Literacy specialist for her local school district. Please visit her website at www.writerscubed.com.

06 March, 2013

The blogosphere is rife with people pursuing their writing goals. There are a lot of inspiring stories; there are many success stories, a lot of ongoing journeys, and numerous struggles to actually get a book out there. Some of you have been writing for decades. I've seen posts on what feels like practically every writers' blogs saying something along the lines of "Writing is my life!"

Me, I sometimes feel like I shouldn't be part of some discussions because I'm not on a one-road quest for publication. Getting a book published (in print! On shelves! As an e-book! Through a publisher!) would be one of the highlights of my life, I'm sure, if it were ever to happen--but it's not Priority 1.

Basically, I worry writers will dislike me for not being dedicated enough, as writing is more of a hobby for me. I worry about being perceived differently because I'm not as passionate about the craft, unlike what seems to be the majority of people who write. I'm not about to throw myself into the painful process of querying and critique partners and pitches; I don't care enough at this point to run my work through that kind of stuff.

I sympathize with the trials of the writing process; I like to learn about the craft; but literary success is not something I'm going to be miserable about if I don't achieve it before I die. Writing is something I enjoy but I've never felt like it's my "true calling" or what have you. It's just fun, with occasional blood and sweat (and epithets hurled at the computer screen, if it's a particularly bad day).

What about you? Do you see writing as something you have to do and seeing your work published as your ultimate goal--or do you see it as something you do for fun, when you can, and without the publication process as the necessary endgame?

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About the IWSG (from the creator Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog):

It's time for another group posting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group! Time to release our fears to the world – or offer encouragement to those who are feeling neurotic.

04 March, 2013

Today's the release date of Overcoming Adversity, the book compilation of all the blogfest entries from the Overcoming Adversity Blogfest Nick Wilford hosted a month ago.

I should probably mention my short story's in the anthology; not only am I excited to contribute to a book created for such a good cause (see the blurb below) this is actually the first time a piece of fiction I wrote has appeared in anything other than my blog.

A collection of seventy moving and uplifting original pieces - real life, flash fiction, and poetry - about battling against the odds and the ultimate triumph of the human spirit. The contributors include Amazon bestselling authors Alex J. Cavanaugh and Kyra Lennon, and the cream of upcoming talent. The anthology is part of a fundraising effort to send the editor's stepson, Andrew McNaughton, to a specialist college in England. Andrew has cerebral palsy, and is a remarkable young man with a promising future. However, the free further education options offered in his own country of Scotland will not challenge him and allow him to progress. In order to access the education he deserves, Andrew will have to pay exorbitant fees, thus creating a situation of discrimination. Help us get Andrew to college by buying a book that runs the full gamut of human emotions, ultimately leaving you inspired and glad to be alive. Whatever struggles you are going through, our sincere hope is that this book will help.

Editor Bio: Nick Wilford is a writer and stay-at-home dad. Once a journalist, he now makes use of those rare times when the house is quiet to explore the realms of fiction. When not writing he can usually be found spending time with his family or cleaning something. He has four short stories published in Writer’s Muse magazine. Nick is also co-running a campaign to get a dedicated specialist college built in Scotland. Visit him at http://nickwilford.blogspot.co.uk.

01 March, 2013

The Back from the Future Blogfest is hosted by M. Pax, Suze, and Nicki Elson. The concept is really cool: Post about what you'd find in a time capsule you've sent yourself from the future. I love thinking about the future, so of course I signed up! (Sorry about posting so late, though. It's past 16:30 in my time zone . . . oops.)

From the hosts:

You're up before dawn on a Saturday when the doorbell rings. You haven't brewed your coffee so you wonder if you imagined the sound. Plonking the half-filled carafe in the sink, you go to the front door and cautiously swing it open. No one there. As you cast your eyes to the ground, you see a parcel addressed to you ... from you.

You scoop it up and haul it inside, sensing something legitimate despite the extreme oddness of the situation. Carefully, you pry it open. Inside is a shoebox--sent from ten years in the future--and it's filled with items you have sent yourself.

What's in it?

First, there would be a note that says, "Time travel has been invented. Here's the formula so you can go win the Nobel Prize for Physics and do ourselves proud."

Second, there would be a note that says, "You're not insane. Here's a textbook that proves the mathematics of time travel."

Third, there would be yet another note that says, "You really aren't crazy. Remain calm. You're going to make some fabulous memories in the next 10 years and you're going to get a degree and you're going to do well for yourself. You just have to work hard enough. (No, I'm not giving you a copy of your dissertation.)"

Fourth, there would be a final and concluding note that says, "I don't know what else to say. I don't want to ruin anything for you--me?--but I want to yammer away because you understand more than anyone about how this brain works.

"Oh, well. As long as you don't make the stupid decision--er, never mind, something good comes out of that. Anyway. You'll find all this out on your own. I apologize for the questions I must have raised, now that you've analyzed the box and checked the return address (fictional, I assure you), tested the handwriting against your own, and studied the voice of these notes.

"And one last thing: You can stop worrying about Sherlock: Season Three now, because it was just as great as the first two."

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What would be in your time capsule? Mostly words? Mostly pictures? Do you think you'd have a lot of information to convey to a younger version of you? Would you try to be humorous or serious, or a mix of both?